STEVE WATSON has said he is considering bringing in another left-back to York City following Jaden Charles’ return to Mansfield Town.

Charles was brought in on by York last month and went back to his parent club last week, prior to City’s FA Cup win over Hebburn Town.

As first-choice starter Scott Barrow remains sidelined for at least eight weeks with an Achilles injury, regular right-back Michael Duckworth covered on the left hand side of defence, with the versatile Olly Dyson taking his spot on the other flank.

While Watson insisted that he had every faith in Duckworth, the manager has said that he is still looking at potential new signings at left-back.

“Originally we got the green light to do a month (for Charles) and when that month was up, to extend it, it would have been (another) two or three months,” said Watson.

“That maybe meant we wanted to have a look at Ducky in there.

“He has played there before for Halifax. I think that Ducky admitted himself in his interview afterwards that he looked a little bit rusty.

“That won’t have been because of the position that made him feel that way, it will have been the time out and being back on the pitch.

“Positionally, I’m not worried about Ducky there.

“But it’s something that I’m still looking at. I’ve been to a number of games and I’ve been in contact with a number of people.

“If the right one comes up that I think can help us in the short term before Christmas, I’ll put it to the Board.”

Elsewhere on City’s injury front, Watson revealed that defender Josh King and forward Jason Gilchrist were making good progress, though there was less good news surrounding midfielder Paddy McLaughlin.

“Paddy has not trained again and it is always a concern when a player doesn’t train on a Thursday,” said Watson.

“But it wasn’t a massively serious injury, so even 48 hours could make a difference.

“The other two (injured) lads we’re not going to be talking about a few a while.

“Newts (Sean Newton) is another four weeks (away) and Scotty is probably double that, at least.

“Gilly has come back and trained all week, so he will be closer to my thoughts on Saturday.

“Kingy has had another 90 minutes and a week of training under his belt. Harrison Hopper has had a bit of illness but he has come back and trained.

“We’ll have good options again.”

York return to Vanarama National League North action this weekend with a trip to Darlington.

The Quakers have just one win from their first seven matches, though that victory did come in their last league outing away to third-placed Brackley Town.

Darlington are a side that Watson knows well, with a number of former Minstermen in their ranks.

He said: “We know all about Griff (Kallum Griffiths). He’s got a very good right foot, delivers a good ball and he’s powerful.

“We know all about Cass (Jake Cassidy), his work-rate, his energy and his power.

“Luke Charman is a very good player, he comes in off the left onto his right foot and he’s very a talented boy.

“So they’ve got some good players.”

Watson, who watched Darlington lose 1-0 in an FA Cup replay at Chester earlier this week, added: “They didn’t score the other night, and they’ve gone two games without scoring.

“But they had a spell of about 15 minutes at the start of the second half where they could have been the ones to have gone through to the next round, they just missed a couple of chances and the (Chester) keeper made a couple of good saves.

“Like I said about Hereford, they’ll be looking for the next game to kick-start them and we’re looking for this next game to keep our positive run going.

“It will be two teams desperate to win.”